Gennady Golovkin retained his WBA middleweight title at Foxwoods tonight after dispatching what was supposed to be his toughest challenger ever, Matthew Macklin. The Kazakh did so by hammering Macklin with a terrifying body shot that left the challenger flat on the floor for several minutes.

Reputations are hard to earn. And they're hard to keep. They come with benefits. But they can also hang on a fighter like a chain, an extra burden in a sport that's hard enough as it is. Reputations can't be carried throughout a fight. They must be shed like a robe and donned again when the fight is over. During the…